Party favors are generally known as being decorative gifts which are given to attendees at a wide range of celebrations extending from children's birthday parties to political conventions as well as many other types of festive events. Many types of such party favors are known, and they may be generally characterized as inexpensive gifts which function as decorations at a party table. Preferably, it is also desired that a party favor act as an amusement device of some kind such as, for example, a favor which includes a horn, balloon to be inflated, or a container of candy.
The present invention fulfills all of the desirable attributes of a party favor in that it is decorative, relatively inexpensive, and functions to contain and launch confetti in an extremely easy and effective manner. While confetti has long been used at various types of celebrations, its use has been restricted by the difficulty in launching bulk confetti into the air so as to attain a desired height, and effective dispersion or pattern of the individual pieces, without the use of an explosive or a source of compressed gas. That is, loose or bulk confetti has very little effective mass such that it is very difficult to throw a handful of loose pieces of confetti very far into the air or to achieve a predictable display.
Attempts have also been made to blow confetti out of horns such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,491,809 and 1,153,207. However, here again, the small, loose pieces of bulk confetti have little or no effective mass such that they do not project very far into the air, and a strong set of lungs are required to achieve any significant dispersion of the individual pieces. Thus, blowing confetti out of a horn or other container is not suitable for either young children or elderly persons, and with any user, the visual effect is extremely limited.
In co-pending application Ser. No. 08/051,355, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,352,148, there is disclosed a unique form of confetti having an elongated tetragonal shape, and in co-pending application Ser. No. 08/080,534, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,225, the complete specification of which is hereby incorporated by reference, there is disclosed a method of launching confetti from an elongated, hollow tube; the tube being held at one end and being waved forwardly with the forearm and with a flick of the wrist so as to create sufficient centrifugal force to eject the confetti from the tube. According to the teachings of these co-pending Applications, the confetti may be aligned in stacks such that the stacks of confetti have an effective mass, and as disclosed in the latter co-pending application, the stacks may be ejected from the tube and projected high into the air as stacks such that the rising stacks burst into large and predictable patterns.
Such hollow tubes filled with elongated tetragonal confetti and sold under the trademark Flutter Flicker have had great commercial success, and have been enthusiastically received and used by purchases to launch confetti 20 feet and more into the air. However, a certain degree of dexterity is required in the arm and wrist movement such that very young children and some elderly persons may have some difficulty in obtaining the full trajectory and the optimum burst pattern. At the same time, in the hands of an average adult, even a small 6 inch long tube can easily project the stacks well over 15 feet into the air such that the stacks sometimes hit the relatively low ceilings in residences or party rooms before the stacks have burst fully open thereby producing less of a dispersion pattern than they are capable of producing.